I'm no Blender expert - far from it. But there's a couple of aspects to Blender that I find a tad inconvenient/annoying. So here's what I've discovered and it *might* be useful to YOU (if you use Blender). (You may be a seasoned Blender user, in which case these may be nothing new to you).
ISSUE #1Blender's on-screen display of *Statistics* (activated under the 'overlays' menu), gives readings for Objects, Vertices, Edges, Faces and Triangles.
Though helpful, that's only a 'total' count for what mesh is "on-screen". But what if you want a count on just
one sub-part of what's on the screen?
One 'work-around' is to select and 'hide all' except the part you want a 'count' for, but that's a little indirect.
SOLUTION:Simply hit the forward slash key and instantly, you'll go into "Isolate Mode". This will hide all other mesh except the highlighted part, it will zoom in on that part, and it will show the part's correct statistics. One key-click. And since it's a "toggle" function, you can immediately return to the previous full screen layout just by tapping it again. Neat.
ISSUE #2When exporting your mesh, you have tick-box 'options' for export:
* Selected Objects
* Visible Objects
* Active Collection
Personally, I like to select (highlight) the objects I'd like to export from among my total on-screen meshes. However, ticking "Selected Objects" during one Blender session doesn't mean it will be still selected in your next session. It does not stay on by default. There is no way to make it a 'preferred' setting. I've often gone ahead with an export only to realize (too late) that *everything* is being exported because I hadn't remembered to again tick 'Selected Objects'. Annoying.
SOLUTION:(Disclaimer: Though this is quite straight forward - perform this at your own risk!) Inside your Blender Program folder you'll find a folder named 'scripts', inside which is a folder named 'addons'. Here is where you'll find folders for different export formats. Since FBX is probably the most commonly used export format, let's use that. So search for the folder named
io_scene_fbx and INSIDE THAT you should see the following files:
The one we're after is called __init__.py
All that needs changing is ONE single setting inside this file.
But BEFORE doing anything, make a duplicate copy of this __init__.py file. This will be a safety backup if needed. It's fairly straight forward (for those accustomed to editing python scripts) but for the benefit of others, here's the full procedure ....
So ....... Right-click the
__init__.py file and choose "Edit with IDLE" from your dropdown list. (if you have it available). If not, you can use another text editor for doing the same thing, though 'preferrably' it should be a proper python text editor. I tried with "wordpad" but that didn't work - I'm not sure about notepad since I haven't tried it). The following instructions are based on the IDLE python editor.
Once open, we want to search for the following section of the script:
You can do this using the text editor's "replace" function (found in the 'edit' dropdown). Simply enter "Selected Objects" in the "find" window, then click "FIND" ---- DO NOT hit Enter !!!!!! (or you'll erase things!!!!)
So, the very NEXT reference of the word "False" needs to be changed to the word "True".
Again using the "replace" function, we type "False" in the top window AND 'True' in the 'Replace with' window. DO NOT hit enter, but rather hit 'find'. This SHOULD take you 2 lines further down and sitting exactly where we want to be, with the word False highlighted.
If all looks good for replacing, then NOW click "Replace". (If you make a mistake and hit the wrong button, just close out of the python file and when prompted to "save" the changes, select "no". (Now you can start over again fresh).
You *should* have successfully changed the "False" to "True". Now just save the .py file by going "file" > "save". If Blender is already open, you'll need to re-start it. If things have been done correctly, when you go to export out an FBX file, the "Selected Objects" option will now (always) be showing as ticked 'ON' so you'll never need to remember ticking that box again !!!! Yay!
And I believe you can do this for any other export formats you might need - though I've not tried. And if you've gone though this and your FBX export option happens to now be MISSING - it simply means something wasn't done correctly. You can always use the backup you made earlier and replace your faulty file.
Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :( - yikes! ...
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